Jeannie is a contributing editor forPRiME, an online magazine targeting women over 50. The publication is a lifestyle guide for living well not just living longer and offers a fresh perspective on fashion, health, travel, fitness, beauty, business, philanthropy, art, and design. To subscribe, click here and click “SUBSCRIBE” under logo. It’s free!

June: “Say Goodbye to Calorie Counting with These Simple Tips”

Nutrient void pretzels spike your blood sugar, wreak havoc on your hunger and cravings and convert to fat quickly in your body, while avocados fill you up, give you sustained energy without an insulin surge and supply your body with the necessary nutrients it needs to maintain a healthy heart and arteries. The caveat of course is consuming whole foods* in the right proportions. This is where calories count. Too many calories, even from whole foods, will be stored as fat. So, don’t think satisfying your hunger exclusively with calorie dense nuts or a plate full of butter laden, baby potatoes and grass-fed steak will have you staving off heart disease – the #1 killer of women over 50 each year. Nor will it help you trim down. Read the full article

May: “To Trim Down and Age Well Consider Calories…But Don’t Count Calories!”

If you read my last column you know that while calories count, however, don’t count calories. Doing so becomes a distraction and leads us to believe the quality of calories doesn’t matter. Nothing could be farther from the truth — 100 calories of avocado and 100 calories of pretzels are not created equal. They have drastically different effects on our metabolism and our health — one encourages fat storage and weight gain and promotes chronic disease, while the other supports fat burning and weight loss and helps prevent illness Read the full article

April: “Cutting Calories to Lose Weight? Don’t Count On It”

When choosing what to eat, do you consider cutting calories? If you’re like most of us, you do, especially if you’re trying to lose weight. For good reason, conventional wisdom tells us that in order to shed pounds, we simply need to use up more calories than we take in. This advice encourages us to count calories and thanks to food labels and an abundance of apps, we can easily track every calorie and every gram of carb, protein or fat we consume as well as every calorie we burn. Quantifying calories eaten versus those expended should, mathematically, make battling the bulge pretty easy, right? However, if you’ve ever tried to drop a few pounds, you know, it is neither simple nor easy and rarely does the math work this way. Read the full article

March: “Eating Fat to Lose Fat”

Avoiding fat for fear it will make you fat? If so, I don’t blame you. It doesn’t cross your mind that there could possibly be healthy fat. For decades medical professionals, health advocates and government officials recommended we limit our total fat intake to lose weight and reduce our risk of heart disease. We “ate up” this advice and spent much of our adult lives shunning peanuts for pretzels, eggs yolks for fat-free, sweetened yogurts and fish for pasta. Eating fat to lose fat was NOT an idea we would have embraced Read the full article

February: “Chocolate: Healthy Habit or Guilty Pleasure?”

It seems only fitting that chocolate is the focus of my article this month. According to Nielsen, Americans consume approximately 3 billion pounds of the sweet stuff annually and purchase 58 million pounds of it in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. Most of us love chocolate and many of us crave it, making the sensationalized media headlines that proclaim chocolate’s potential health benefits irresistible. Finally, a healthy habit we can embrace! Read the full article

November: “This Nightly Ritual…Friend or Foe?”

It’s hard to believe the holidays are fast approaching. Who doesn’t love the celebratory mood in the air between Thanksgiving and the New Year? Oftentimes our social commitments increase, and with the additional cocktail parties, company festivities and family get-togethers, come opportunities to imbibe more holiday cheer than usual – guilt-free, of course, because drinking alcohol in moderation is healthy, right? Hum…sorry ladies, maybe not! Read the full article

September: “Exercising to Lose Weight? Stop. It Doesn’t Work!”

Sorry Ladies, despite the title of the article, this column is not a hall pass to sit on the couch and be sedentary. Instead, I hope it encourages you to get off your tush and move frequently but for reasons other than weight loss. Exercise is imperative to our health, especially as we age. Consider it the fountain of youth if you will. It protects us against most ailments and illnesses that plague women over 50 namely heart disease, type II diabetes, certain cancers and even cognitive decline. Staying active also relieves pain and stiffness associated with arthritis, improves bone density, wards off depression and anxiety, fights fatigue and helps us maintain our weight. Read the full article

June: “Don’t Over Juice – If At All”

It’s no wonder juicing is all the rage. Juices for the most part taste good and are convenient. They’re typically made with healthy ingredients and readily available from numerous juice bars, restaurants and grocery stores, making them the perfect grab-and-go snack or meal. But are they healthy and diet friendly? According to manufacturers’ claims, yes. They contain no added sugar, several servings of fruits and vegetables, and deliver a large dose of highly absorbable nutrients to our body. No need to eat a salad again, right? Not so fast. Read the full article

May: “Detect Disease Before It Turns Deadly”

Ladies, when it comes to your well-being, be proactive! Eat right, stay active, avoid tobacco and have the following tests run to determine the state of your health. Doing so, can help diagnose life-threatening diseases before damage or disabilities occur. If caught early, changes to your diet and lifestyle can often slow the progression and even reverse many of the chronic and age-related conditions that plague women in their prime. Read the full article

April: “Fight Inflammation with Food not Drugs”

Ladies, if you want to look and feel your best as your age, start with your diet! The choices you make at mealtime not only affect your energy, weight and mood, but also contribute to certain painful ailments and medical conditions caused by inflammation. Inflammation is part of our body’s immune response. We need it to fight infection and heal injuries but when it becomes chronic, research suggests it can damage our arteries, tissues, joints and organs leading to many of the health issues that plague women over 50 such as heart disease, Type II diabetes, certain cancers, obesity, dementia, Alzheimer’s, depression, autoimmune conditions, arthritis, and age-related eye diseases. Read the full article

February: “8 Foods That Fight the Leading Cause of Death in Women Over 50”

Heart Disease is the leading cause of death in women worldwide. It’s more deadly than all forms of cancer combined and kills approximately one female every minute. Yet, few women recognize the signs of a heart attack and many don’t realize how effective diet and lifestyle choices are in preventing the disease. It’s estimated that upwards of 75% of heart disease can be avoided by eating well, staying active and kicking the habit. Read the full article

October: “Shun Carbs to Shed Weight? “

Recent headlines suggesting that low-carb diets are more effective than low-fat diets in promoting weight loss have sparked a renewed interest in giving up everything from carrots to cupcakes. I’ve been flooded with inquiries asking if carbohydrates are bad for us. Emphatically, I say no, quite the contrary. Carbohydrates, like protein and fat, are essential for life. In fact, our bodies convert carbs to glucose and glucose is the preferred source of fuel for our cells and the primary source of energy for our brains. Read the full article

July: “Battling the Bulge After Fifty”

Proper diet and exercise today can help prevent post-menopausal weight gain and improve quality of life for years to come. As we age our body composition naturally changes. Our skeletal muscle mass peaks in our 30s and declines thereafter, as we gradually lose lean muscle mass and accumulate fat. This age-related muscle loss is called sarcopenia and can lead to reduced muscle strength, frailty, osteoporosis, fractures, weight gain, and increased risk of diabetes. There is no fountain of youth, but we can delay the inevitable by remaining active and eating right. Exercising regularly and consuming plenty of muscle-supporting nutrients in midlife can slow the progression of muscle atrophy and reduce body fat. Read the full article

May: “PrimeWomen at Risk”

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, a woman’s risk of breaking a hip due to osteoporosis is equal to her risk of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancer combined. Studies suggest that 1 of every 2 females will break a bone in their lifetime due to this debilitating disease. Women over 50 who have gone through menopause are at an increased risk for brittle bones and fractures. Thankfully, however, there are many diet and lifestyle adjustments we can make to help maintain proper bone density. And while maintaining a healthy weight, participating in weight bearing, and muscle strengthening exercises, and not smoking are all important, consuming adequate calcium and maintaining appropriate vitamin D levels are absolutely essential for skeletal health. Read the full article

“More Prime Women Articles by Jean Varney”

"Eating well not only keeps us looking good and feeling great, but can prevent, treat, and in some cases, reverse chronic disease. Contact me today to learn how you can improve your well-being." —Jeannie